Environment.sql

Is it optimised for ad hoc queries
Are backups compressed
What is the allocation size of the drives
What is the cost threshold for parallelism
What is the maximum degree of parallelism
Where are the SQL data files installed

Is Maximum memory configured configured correctly

are there alerts configured

What is happening right now?

1. Check SQL Error log EXEC xp_readerrorlog @p1=1 /Error Log Number/, @p2=1 /Error Log Type- 1= SQL Server/
2. Check Windows Event viewer
3. sp_WhoIsActive What types of queries are running? What are the waits for the queries that are running?

What are the wait stats over a given period?

1. What are the waits for whole instance over a 30-60 second interval ShortPeriodWaitStats.sql

Quick Health Check

Sanity check - best practices Glenn Berry/ sp_blitz